Rugby Union, Six Nations, Wales v England: Henson is As Henson Does

"The way he acts, every day's a birthday for that boy," Alan Phillips said when the subject of Gavin Henson's impending celebration came up at the Welsh team hotel one morning this week. "Mind you," added the former international hooker and current manager of Wales, "he's a shy boy, underneath it all. Two years ago he was like a church mouse."

No longer. Henson, who turned 23 on Tuesday, will be the focus of all attention throughout the principality this weekend, as befits a player who is expected to provide the key to a victory over England. The spotlight will burn down on him but a startling upswept hairdo and a pair of silver boots proclaim the reluctance of this "shy boy" to fade into the background.

Five years after his performance in an Under-19 tournament in Chile persuaded the International Rugby Board to acclaim him as the world's young player of the year, and four years after his senior international debut, Henson finally appears to have come of age. Distrusted by Graham Henry and Steve Hansen, who tried him at fly-half, at full-back and on the wing before the latter left him out of the World Cup party altogether, under Mike Ruddock he has established himself at inside- centre. Replacing the departed Iestyn Harris, he brings the creative instincts of an outside-half to the position one slot further down the line.

The son of a former Maesteg prop, he began his career in the sacred No10 shirt, understudying the gifted but ill-fated Arwel Thomas at Swansea as the old club began its decline into administration.

"From the age of 10 or so until I got into professional rugby I was a No10," Henson said. "Since then coaches have looked at me in other positions, which I didn't really mind. Now I'm pretty settled at No12 for the national side, I hope. It's a position that gives you a bit more time and there's not so much pressure."

The pressure was the sort experienced by all those Welsh fly-halves who have found themselves in the line of succession to an array of immortals. For so many of them an excess of expectation has led to an exaggerated sense of disappointment. With Ruddock's encouragement Henson looks to have found a way out of the trap.

"Going back to the days with Swansea," Henson said, "when we were losing all those, it was always the 10's fault. There was a lot of blame on my shoulders, which is hard to take, especially when you're young. It wasn't the case, either. We were a pretty poor side. So it's nice playing 12, because you don't get that sort of pressure."

When Swansea went bust, he thought of moving to France or England to rescue his career. Instead along came regional rugby and the Neath-Swansea Ospreys to save him for the nation.

"I didn't know where my rugby career was going," he said. "I was about 19 then, or 20, and Swansea went into administration just after the transfer window closed, so it was difficult to go anyway. But I think I made the right decision to stay with the Ospreys, and I haven't looked back. Sean Holley and Lyn Jones have picked me in a position and kept me there week in and week out. That hadn't happened before in my rugby career. I was playing once a month at Swansea, which wasn't helping my game at all. I developed a lot as a rugby player last season and I think the Wales management noticed that and gave me my chance on the summer tour to Argentina. So far I haven't let them down. Hopefully I can keep it going."

The autumn internationals set the seal on his arrival at the top level. Two tries against the Springboks, another against Romania, two penalties against the All Blacks and 14 conversions from 14 attempts against Japan attested to the contribution he can make to Ruddock's revived squad.

"We played two big teams on top of their games," he pointed out. "South Africa had just won the Tri-Nations and New Zealand are always regarded as one of the best teams in the world. We competed with them for the full 80 minutes and people said we should have won. We felt like that, too. So going into these games now, we should have a lot of belief. It would just be nice to win one."

His 12th cap will be his introduction - a belated one, many would say - to the Six Nations tournament. "I don't know what it's going to be like," he said. "I know from watching on the telly that they're massive games, especially Wales-England. But I've never watched one in the stadium. Tickets are too hard to come by. What I do know is that it's going to be the biggest game of my career."

And might this, as most people in Wales seem to think, be a particularly good time to be playing England, with all their retirements, injuries and unfamiliar faces?

"I suppose it is. We've got a good chance of beating them, especially playing at home in front of a full stadium. A couple of years ago they looked unbeatable and they went on to win the World Cup. I wouldn't have liked to have played them then. The results since then have shown that they are beatable. But then you look back at the autumn internationals, when we almost beat South Africa and England more or less stuffed them. So they're still a quality team."

But there is a feeling that Ruddock's regime has restored some of the crucial Welshness to the Wales team and that Henson is a symbol of this return to the core values of invention and spontaneity.

"I dunno about that," he said. "But Mike wants us to play an exciting brand of rugby. It's not so much about patterns or moves. Play heads-up rugby, play what's in front of you. I hope everyone enjoys watching it."